Sunday, May 20, 2007

I am mad as hell and I am not gonna take this anymore

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Rarely have journalists written such a succinct lead: "It's gloomy out there!". That was found in Yahoo news which cites the latest poll revealing that 75 percent of us think the country is headed in the wrong direction, if not oblivion. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am not "gloomy"! I am mad as hell and I am not gonna take it anymore. Men and women, whites and minorities are war-weary and fed up. It's a pessimism seldom shared across the demographic spectrum. It is not surprising to find women and minorities are less content than men and whites. But this time around, the nation has not been so gloomy since the end of the Bush Sr regime.

Like today, America had reason to be gloomy. The back to back administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. had left the nation polarized, divided into haves and have nots, a nation exporting jobs, a nation offering no hope to middle class working whites or minorities. Why the gloom? That's easy. The war and piss poor leadership. I want you to get mad. I want you to go your window, stick you head out! I want you to yell as loud as you can:

I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

Though the Reagan-heads had promised that wealth would trickle down, it trickled up instead. It created the ruling elite. The trend continues unabated to this day save for a brief period in Bill Clinton's second term. Even a cursory perusal of the material at the Census Bureau will confirm my point. Check out the many Census Bureau breifings by Dr. Daniel Weinberg.

The rich have gotten richer. The poor have gotten much poorer. Death and sickness rates among the poor are disproportionately high and rising. The policies of the GOP, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and now, George W. Bush are to blame.

I am mad as hell about that and I am not gonna take it anymore. Nor should you. Chronic "glumness" is easily traced to the fact that the U.S.is fed up with Bush's war of aggression against the people of Iraq. Even so, because Bush's big lie machine has been so effective, it is still necessary to remind everyone. Again --go to your window, stick your head out! Yell as loudly as you can until everyone gets it:

Iraq had nothing to do with 911.It's Bush's evil war crime. He wanted it. He lied about it and threw tantrums to get it. When the public decides to throw the bums out of the office they stole, the bums will have deserved the anger, the venom, the whirlwind which they earned and will eventually reap.

The right wing likes to use the term "traitors" to describe those good people who do not subscribe to or support right wing idiocy, imperialism and dictatorial bullshit! The American people, they say, simply do not "understand that terrorists had already launched the war against them." Alas --that is not what happened. Terrorism has increased since Eisenhower and, later, Ronald Reagan's invasion of Lebanon. Terrorist acts against U.S. interests tripled during that period of time in which Ronald Reagan waged his great war on terrorism. That assertion is based upon FBI stats compiled and published by the Brookings Institution.

American and British interventionism are at the very root cause of terrorism. Since World War II, our various interventions have always lead to guerilla resistance to our meddling and unwelcome presence. That response is conveniently called "terrorism" by GOP demagogues. For whom are we "intervening"? That's easy! The answer is found in a speech by then President Dwight David Eisenhower, who, as America's number one general in World War II knew what he was talking about. The culprit, according to Ike, is the Military/Industrial complex. The MIC is STILL the culprit!

Still - it is a mistake to blame Bush for all our woes. Bush was just an idiot who had enablers, primarily the GOP itself, no longer a party but a criminal conspiracy. That party must step up to the plate and accept responsibility for having auctioned off the US to lobbies and foreign countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Don't hold your breath! The GOP way involves blaming Democrats for everything that goes wrong even when when the GOP had controlled the White House, both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court. I am mad as hell about that too! And I am not gonna take it anymore.

The GOP doesn't think like normal people. Increasingly cult-like since Ronald Reagan's misrule, the GOP thinks backward. The GOP concludes first and looks for premises and/or evidence later. They resent having to do so. For example, the late Barbara Olson, on CNN, said that Democrat Gary Condit may have been guilty of murder --not because there was evidence against him but because there was none! How bright is that? If there was no evidence, she said, he must have covered it up.

Are you mad yet? You should be mad as hell and yelling about it. Go to your window right now! Stick out your head and yell: "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!"

So --for the GOP/right-wing mentality, the absence of evidence is evidence that the accused covered up the crime; and, because he covered it up, he (or she) is guilty! Bottom line: the mentality of Republicans is totally fucked up, symptomatic of psychosis and, even more obviously, psyhopathy!

There are more tangible signs of America's long, hot season of discontent. One can put a number on most of it and we can thank Michael Ventura for having done so in America by the numbers:

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

"The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

"The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

"Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).

Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.

"The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

There is a palpable sense of despair throughout the "land of the free" as it becomes increasingly clear that Bush still insists upon imposing a dictatorship.

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

George W. Bush uttered those very unfunny words on December 18, 2000. On that day the president-elect went to capitol hill to meet with Congressional leaders and emerged from the meeting flipping them and the American people this rhetorical bird.

The president is making good on those words and there hasn't been a peep out of Congress or the press. In a document released on May 9, 2007 entitled "National Continuity Policy," Bush makes good on his sick fantasy. In case of “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function” Bush will control the entire U.S. government, not just the federal branch.

It isn't really surprising. Bush decides who is an enemy combatant, a person without legal rights, and who should be spied upon.

If ever there was a moment for conspiracy theories, this is it. Will there be a phony terror attack, or a declaration of war against Iran? We don't know what the trigger will be but it is time to be afraid.

Actually it is time for impeachment. Bush's unpopularity makes him particularly dangerous. So does the acquiescence of the media and the silence of the Democrats. State legislatures have the right to begin the impeachment process but they have been smacked down by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

We are screwed. The phrase may be inelegant, but it says it all. Maybe we will all end up in Guantanamo. Who knows? The National Continuity Policy contains "classified continuity annexes." WTF!? As I said, we are screwed! Indeed, Bush has arrogated unto himself now the power to interpret the Constitution. I suppose he can now just dismiss the Supreme Court.

It defines a “catastrophic emergency” as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”

It's a sorry state of affairs. The American people must wake the f**k up and throw the bums out! The people should then follow up with adamant demands that the harm Bush has done be undone. There is otherwise no hope for America. Congressman Ron Paul, whom I have called the last honest Republican, sounds the same theme.

I am not endorsing Paul's candidacy for President. Not yet anyway. I merely present his video because he deserves to be heard. Certainly, Paul understands the many evils to be undone in what has been misnamed the "Patriot" Act. It should be re-named: The Bush Act of Treason Against America!

America must make a decision about what kind of nation it is to become. As Dizzy Dean would have put it: When you come to a fork in the road, you have to take it.